Some albums open with a bang and demand your attention. Other albums work subtly, thriving upon material that eases it’s way into your ears and grows on you. You put it on, and you immediately feel like you’ve always known this album, and that the artist involved is an old friend. This has been my experience with The Quiet Life.

Fresh Daily is a Brooklyn emcee/graphic design artist who has been doing his thing for a few years now. The Quiet Life is the work of a mature artist who is incredibly comfortable in his own skin. As you might guess from the title, the music is very laid back, with plenty of jazz and R&B samples. For the album, he enlisted the help of producers Shuko & Fonty, Theory Hazit, and MNDSGN. They come together to create a backdrop that’s very warm and welcoming. This isn’t an aggressive album, and nobody’s about to start barking like DMX. It’s music to chill out to while Fresh Daily talks about his views on life and love.

Fresh Daily has a great conversational flow which reminds me of J-Live. His words unfold naturally, at a pace that manages to pack a lot into a short space, but never using more words than necessary. Fresh isn’t interested in convincing you of anything, either. If you want to listen and take part, that’s cool. If not - peace. There are a few points on the album when Fresh gets romantic, but he keeps things respectful, which unfortunately is still the exception and not the rule. “Good Dude” with Coco Sarai and “Diamonds” with Chris Faust are two are of the best songs this year that not only present a man being attracted to a woman, but respecting her and treating her right. And fellas, ask any straight woman you know - that makes the song even sexier.

Fresh Daily is one of the more pleasant discoveries of the year for me. It’s always nice to pick up an album that you know little about and to have it really resonate with you. The Quiet Life is a subtle work of intelligent emotional exploration, and it gets better with each listen.